Mexican Labor News & Analysis

Year End Letter from United Electrical Workers (UE) Director of International Affairs

Note for those of you who are new to this list: we provide an update about some of our work and ask for your support once a year. We want to thank you in advance for your generosity and for all you do to advance labor rights!

December 2009

Dear Union Sisters and Brothers, Activists and friends:

This has been a year filled with challenges and opportunities. You no doubt remember the victorious plant occupation by UE Local 1110 last winter at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago. That success was made possible by UE's solid rank and file approach to organizing, hard work, great community support and fortunate timing. UE's characteristics as a tough, smart and progressive union illuminate our work with international allies such as the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT). We support their work and they support ours. Our struggles are increasingly linked and -- along with many of you -- we are in the thick of it: defending labor rights in Mexico, establishing collective bargaining rights for public sector workers in North Carolina, opposing the G-20's policies, and defending and organizing immigrant workers in Chicago.

Building on a Dynamic Model of International Solidarity

The relationship between the UE and Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT) has served as a model for international solidarity based on organizing, education and rank and file involvement. Among the highlights for this year, we are happy to report that the FAT's work has resulted in some significant victories for manufacturing, service and public sector workers; we have participated together actively in the World Social Forum and G-20 protests; recently returned from a fantastic UE delegation to Mexico; and are organizing support for the Mexican Electrical Workers during their current crisis. Thanks to the tireless contribution of editor Dan LaBotz we are completing our fourteenth year of publishing Mexican Labor News and Analysis!
Planning for next year's organizing and educational work is underway and we hope to meet up with many of you in Detroit at Labor Notes and at the US Social Forum.

An Exciting New Way to Organize Immigrant Workers

"It's not just about us. This is a fight for all workers. Our struggle doesn't end here... " -- Melvin Maclin, Republic Windows sit-downer

The newest project of the UE Research and Education Fund, Warehouse Workers For Justice (WWJ), addresses the exploitation and abuse of the largely Latino labor force in Chicago's distribution sector. A key link in the global supply chain, Chicago has the largest concentration of warehouse workers in the U.S. The increase in globalized production is concurrent with a rise in contingent work, and flexible employment relationships open the door wide to worker exploitation. This is difficult organizing terrain that calls for new approaches to unite workers and win key demands. Together with key community partners and building on the momentum from the Republic victories, WWJ is meeting this challenge. Learn more by clicking here!

Leading the Fight for Collective Bargaining in North Carolina

Collective bargaining for public sector workers is illegal in North Carolina. We challenged this historic barrier to unionization, combining organizing with the creative use of international law and solidarity. We have made tremendous strides, galvanized a broad movement in support of collective bargaining, and totally changed the terms of public discourse. Inspired by this campaign, workers have organized on the ground, finding the courage to strike and win demands despite the legal prohibitions, and forcing recognition against all odds. Click here for more information!

Stand in Solidarity with UE!

Please stand in solidarity with us, making more victories possible in 2010. While our funds to date have gone a very long way, more is needed to seize the new opportunities emerging due to the injustices of the globalized marketplace and the determination of the UE to take on difficult challenges. We ask you to continue supporting our efforts to make all of this innovative work possible. Please give generously and consider becoming a monthly sustainer: a monthly contribution of $5, $10, or $50 makes a difference in our work for justice!

Support Organizing Work by the FAT in Mexico:

In Mexico, organizers and rank and file leaders from the FAT continue their difficult task of organizing against great odds, with enthusiasm and determination. We ask your support to continue to make this difficult work possible! Please give generously!
To support this organizing work, please send a check to the UE/FAT Solidarity Fund, One Gateway Center, Suite 1400, Pittsburgh, PA., 15222-1416. Or your tax- deductible contributions can be made by credit card -- and you can choose to contribute on line: right now, either as a single donation, or better yet as a monthly sustainer.

Make a tax deductible contribution to support cross-border work, MLNA, immigrant workers in Chicago, or the fight for collective bargaining in NC:

Through the UE Research and Education Fund you can support:
* Mexican Labor News and Analysis
* Cross-border work with FAT/Workers Centers
* Linking UE rank and file leaders with their counterparts in other countries
* Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ) in Chicago
* The North Carolina International Worker Justice Campaign

Tax-deductible contributions can be sent to the UE Research and Education Fund (UEREF) at One Gateway Center, Suite 1400, Pittsburgh, PA., 15222-1416). Please make checks payable to the UEREF. Or better yet, contribute on line.

Thank you and have a good holiday!

In Solidarity,

Robin Alexander, Director of International Affairs
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)

PS: One other way in which you can help.....

Our web designer is in the process of updating the international web site. She is requesting short quotes from people who think well of our work. If you are willing to write a sentence or two about why you admire or support the UE's international work, please email me at international@ranknfile-ue.org

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Mexican Electrical Workers Change Strategy in Face of Calderón Government's Intransigence

By Dan La Botz

The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) celebrated its 95th anniversary on December 14 with cultural events and pledges to continue to fight for the jobs of its members. But now, two months since President Felipe Calderón's liquidation of the state-owned Light and Power Company, seizure of the facilities, and firing of the 44,000 workers, and faced with the government's intransigence, the union has been forced to change its strategy. While previously demanding the that the liquidation of the company be halted and that all workers returned to their jobs, the union now seeks mediation and negotiation with the government, asking that the Federal Electrical Commission (CFE), the state-owned successor company, hire 20,000 workers who have not accepted their termination and severance pay.

The Latest Blow

The latest blow against the union was the ruling on December 11 by Federal Judge Guillermina Coutiño Mata, which denied the Mexican Electrical Workers Union's petition for an injunction (amparo) to stop the liquidation of the Light and Power Company. The judge declared that President Felipe Calderón had acted in accordance with the law when he liquidated the company because of what he said was its inefficiency and high cost, because in doing so he was putting the collective economic interests of all Mexicans ahead of the individual interests of the employees.

Both parties have ten days to appeal the judge's ruling, and the union plans to appeal to the next level, a tribunal where the case will be heard by a panel of judges. Union attorney Nestor de Buen says that from there the case will go to the Mexican Supreme Court where he believes the matter will likely be decided. Judge Coutiño Mata did not rule on claims that the government had violated some labor laws, saying that those complaints would be heard by the proper authority, which is the Federal Labor Board (JFCA).

Union leader Martín Esparza told workers that despite the ruling the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) would continue to engage in powerful peaceful actions. "We remain firm," said Esparza. "We are a peaceful citizens' movement with great power, with clear demands, and with ingenuity. We will continue with our national and our international alliances."

International Labor Solidarity

The SME has been strongly supported by several Mexican unions as well as by other unions from around the world. Last week a delegation of U.S. and Canadian labor union leaders visited Mexico to show their solidarity with fired electrical workers of the former Light and Power Company and to tell Mexican President Felipe Calderón it was not too late to negotiate a just resolution to this crisis. The delegation was led by Hassan Yussef, secretary treasurer of the Canadian Labor Confederation (CLC), and by Stanley Gacek, associate director of the International Department of the AFL-CIO. The group included the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) of Canada, the United Steel Workers (USW), which represents workers in both the Canada and the United States, and the Utility Workers Union and the independent United Electrical Workers Union which represent U.S. workers.

The U.S.-Canadian trade union delegation expressed its solidarity with the SME members and their families and criticized the Mexican government for violating its own constitution and laws, for violating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), for failing to live up to the standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO), as well as for human rights violations.

Upon the return of the delegation, USW President Leo Gerard sent letter to the Mexican Ambassador in which he states: "After this fact-finding mission, the USW is more convinced than ever that the Mexican government has acted outside the bounds of the Mexican Constitution and Labor Laws as well as ILO Convention 87 in carrying out the unilateral action of liquidating LyF; firing all 44,000 employees of LyF; and effectively dissolving the SME union by this mass firing, by the interference in the SME internal elections and by the freezing of SME assets." (See below for the complete letter).
The delegation's report and recommendations are expected later this week.

Meanwhile, the United Electrical Workers (UE), Grassroots Global Justice, and other organizations continue to promote the email campaign and to encourage the personal delivery of letters to Mexican consulates. As we go to press we are aware of visits to consulates in Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago and Boston. While international labor solidarity raises the morale of Mexican workers, it has not yet been able to move the Mexican government.

(For information about sending an email or delivering a letter to the Mexican consulate, go to MLNA Vol 14, No. 10.).

The Darkening Horizon

The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) and its members certainly face a darkening horizon. Time alone has taken its toll. After two months, the government's liquidation of the company appears to be a fait accompli. The Federal Electrical Commission (CFE) and its loyal Sole Union of Electrical Workers (SUTERM), supported by hundreds of military electricians, moved in, took over the facilities and have successfully operated them now for two months, providing electricity to Mexico City and several surrounding states with only some occasional blackouts in limited areas. Some 62 percent of the 44,000 workers have accepted their terminations and severance pay and gone on to seek other jobs.

Although the union won an injunction in its case challenging the decree liquidating the company, that was recently overturned, and the union's legal and political strategy strategy has been unsuccessful: the case filed by the Mexico City legislature was thrown out by the Supreme Court for lack of standing and the union's attempt to get the Mexican Legislature to challenge the president's action as unconstitutional lacked sufficient support to move forward.

While the union has led impressive mass demonstration and work stoppages, with the holiday season now beginning, it is unlikely that it will be able to carry out another mass action until the Christmas season ends on Three Kings Day, January 6.

Finally, as if all of that were not enough, the Mexican Labor Board (JFCA) declared on December 2 that Martín Esparza was not the general secretary of the union because his election has been fraudulent. Esparza has called for new union elections without the participation of the 62% of the workers who have accepted their severance pay.

While in the courts and in the legislature the Mexican Electrical Workers Union continues to call for a reversal of the government's decision to liquidate the company, its new practical bargaining position represents a strategic retreat. The union now seeks to represent only 20,000 of the total of 44,000 former Light and Power workers and it does not seek to return them to their old jobs, but rather find them a place with the new employer, the Federal Electrical Commission (CFE). At the same time, it argues that the Mexican Electrical Workers Union should represent those workers in their dealings with the new employer. While the Mexican Supreme Court has ruled that more than one union may legally represent workers within a single bargaining unit, that demand will surely be opposed by both the rival Sole Union of Electrical Workers (SUTERM) which new represents all workers in that company and the Mexican government.

Seeking New Mediation

The Mexican Electrical Workers Union is seeking to have a group of "notables," that is, of prominent public persons, mediate in talks with the Mexican government. The notables are José Narro, rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM); Enrique Villa, director of Mexican Polytechnic Institute; together with leaders of two of country's major political parties, Carlos Navarrete of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and Gustavo Madero of the National Action Party (PAN). That group met with union leaders Martín Esparza and Humbero Montes de Oca to hear their proposal. Secretary of Labor Javier Lozano Alarcón has said that in any meeting with the notables the government would not discuss any proposal to reverse the liquidation of the Light and Power Company. So far, the parties have not agreed to mediation, nor have the notables agreed to mediate.

As part of its turn to mediation, the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) ended the hunger strike being carried out by 10 women and five men in front of the Federal Electrical Commission (CFE) on December 9. The 15 hunger strikers had taken water, honey and saline solution for 17 days in protest of the government actions. The union said, however, that while it was ending the hunger strike it was not ending its sit-in there.

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Chronology of Conflict Between Mexican Government
And Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME)

Since October 11 there have been continuous marches and demonstrations, many legal actions, and legislative discussions and proposals. Below we provide some of the most important dates.

September 10, 2009 -- Felipe Calderón's Secretary of Labor, Javier Lozano, declares that there have been irregularities in the Mexican Electrical Workers Union's election process.

September 28, 2009 -- Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) warns that Felipe Calderón's government has plans to seize the Light and Power Company's electrical facilities. SME calls for support from other unions and movements.

October 5, 2009 -- Mexican Secretary of Labor Javier Lozano refuses to recognize Martín Esparza, general secretary, and other union officers of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), declaring their election invalid. The Union is left without a legally recognized leadership.

October 11, 2009 -- The Calderón government sends the Federal police to seize Light and Power Company facilities, liquidates the company, and fires 44,000 workers, which would effectively eliminate the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME). President Calderón states that the company is being eliminated because it is inefficient.

October 15, 2009 -- More than 150,000 Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) members and families, other labor unions and social movements march to protest the government's seizure of plants, the liquidation of company, and rally in the Zócalo, the national plaza.

October 31, 2009 -- Federal Judge Guillermina Coutiño Mata temporarily blocks the dissolution of the Light and Power Company. Labor Secretary Javier Lozano says the judge's decision will not stop the government from continuing to terminate workers and give them their severance pay.

November 11, 2009 -- Mexican Electrical Workers (SME) calls upon other unions and social movements to participate in a national work stoppage and unions and workers in many parts of the country stop work and engage in protests.

December 2, 2009 -- The Federal Board of Conciliation and Arbitration declared void Martín Esparza's election as general secretary of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME).

December 4, 2009 -- Mexican Electrical Workers summons Mexican unions and social movements to a "symbolic taking of Mexico City" to protest the government's action in seizing electrical facilities, liquidating the Light and Power Company and firing 44,000 workers. Tens of thousands of workers join in the "taking of Mexico City" with marches and a protest rally at the Monument of the Revolution.

December 11, 2009 -- Federal Judge Guillermina Coutiño Mata denies the Mexican Electrical Workers Union's petition for an injunction to stop the liquidation of the Light and Power Company.

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Solidarity with SME Struggle in Mexico; Stop Privatization and Neoliberalism

The following resolution was unanimously adopted on December 15 at the New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI)'s second Congress, which is taking place in Mumbai, India.

Independent trade unionists in Mexico are in desperate need of international labor solidarity. They face a government attack that represents the latest cruel example of privatization as a key tactic used to advance neoliberal economic policies which damage the interests of the working class worldwide.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón recently ordered federal police to seize the power plants operated by the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), while simultaneously liquidating the state-owned Light and Power Company, and firing the entire workforce of approximately 44,000 employees. Some 22,000 retirees and 1,500 union technical school trainees were also affected. Five days before taking this action, the government refused to accord legal recognition to the democratically elected president of the Mexican Electrical Workers' union, Martín Esparza, although this should have been a routine matter.

These actions violate both Mexican law and the commitments assumed by Mexico before the international community, specifically conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labor Organization. They have outraged trade unionists across the globe.

The New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) condemns this blatant violation of labor and human rights, and joins with union allies in the Americas, including the Authentic Workers Front of Mexico (FAT) and the United Electrical Workers (UE) of the United States, in calling for the Mexican government to take the following steps:

* Revoke the decree liquidating the state-owned light and power company, Luz y Fuerza del Centro;
* Reinstate the workers who have been fired and respect their labor rights;
* Respect the Mexican Electrical Workers' Union's collective agreement; and
* Unconditionally recognize the SME's democratically elected union leadership and negotiate in good faith with them for a just resolution to this dispute.

NTUI will present these demands in writing to the Mexican Embassy in India and will communicate them directly to President Calderón in Mexico by fax or letter. Together with other organizations around the world, NTUI will closely monitor the response of the Mexican government in the coming period.

Acting on its core principles of Unity, Militancy and Democracy, NTUI will send a solidarity message to the besieged union, SME, emphasizing its support for this crucial struggle against privatization and neoliberalism.

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Letter from USW President Leo Gerard Condemns Labor Violations

December 9, 2009

Arturo Sarukhan
Ambassador of Mexico
Embajada de Mexico en Estados Unidos de America
1911 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington D.C. 20006

Dear Ambassador Sarukhan:

I am receipt of your letter to me dated October 15, 2009 relating to the Mexican government’s decision to liquidate the Central Light & Power Company (LyF). The USW Senior Associate General Counsel just returned last week from Mexico City where he participated in a joint AFL-CIO/CLC fact-finding delegation about this very issue. While in Mexico City, the delegation met with leaders, members and attorneys for the SME union; Mexican Congressional Representatives; the Mexican Labor Ministry and the U.S. and Canadian Embassies.

After this fact-finding mission, the USW is more convinced than ever that the Mexican government has acted outside the bounds of the Mexican Constitution and Labor Laws as well as ILO Convention 87 in carrying out the unilateral action of liquidating LyF; firing all 44,000 employees of LyF; and effectively dissolving the SME union by this mass firing, by the interference in the SME internal elections and by the freezing of SME assets.

In short, while we cannot verify or contradict the Mexican government’s economic concerns with regard to the functioning of the LyF, these concerns are really beside the point. Virtually all of such concerns proffered by the Mexican government could have been handled in negotiations with the SME union – a union with a long history of peaceful negotiations with the LyF and a union willing to negotiate over such matters. And, the Mexican government should have maintained the status quo pending such negotiations and pending proper judicial actions, before engaging in the liquidation of the LyF, the mass firing of workers and the destruction of the SME.

Instead, the President of Mexico, by decree and without any due process, disregarded Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution pursuant to which the SME is recognized as a union and forewent negotiations with the SME; bypassed the Mexican Congress in summarily liquidating LyF; fired all of the employees without notice, barricaded them from entering work and pressured them to take severance; and bypassed the Labor Conciliation & Arbitration Board in interfering with the internal affairs of the SME and taking other drastic measures designed to break that union.

It is clear to us that all of this was done with the intention to destroy the SME, one of the few independent and democratic unions in Mexico, and that these actions constituted a dramatic violation of Mexico’s obligations under by ILO Convention 87 and under the NAALC.

The USW urges the Mexican government to return the status quo by returning all 44,000 workers to their prior jobs immediately; unfreezing the assets of the SME; and negotiating with the SME, and its designated leaders, as the legitimate representative of these workers. Only such remedial actions will bring Mexico in compliance with its own laws as well as international norms governing the labor relations of nations.

Further, until these remedial steps are taken, we call upon the Mexican government to extent social security protections, for a period of at least one year, to all active employees of LyF.

Sincerely yours,

Leo Gerard
International President

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Documents of the Movement in Translation:

Proclamation to the Peoples of Mexico Regarding the Recall of Felipe Calderón

Translation by Dan La Botz

- November 2009.

Once again our nation is engaged in debate in the midst of a crisis that can only be compared to those that led to the Independence Revolution [1810 - 1821], the Wars of Reform [and of French Intervention, 1857 - 1867] and the Mexican Revolution [1910-1940]. Today, as yesterday, the crisis is total and of long duration, involving economics, politics and culture.

The crisis calls into question the future of the peoples and the nation of Mexico. In the scheme of the political class and the great capitalists, national and foreign, we lack hope: Mexicans have no place now in the world of neo-liberal globalization except as pariahs and as a disposable labor force.

In these circumstances, in order to confront the profound crisis of our country and the problems of the people of Mexico there must be a patriotic and democratic transformation of the political system, economy and culture which removes the bourgeois oligarchy and its class from the political direction of the state and ends imperialist domination over Mexico. A new majority must be constructed which includes all of the patriotic forces and which installs a new government and a new state capable of recovering the control and the property of the productive plant of the nation, of its strategic resources and of guaranteeing sustainable development, social justice, national sovereignty, the autonomy of the Indian communities and the exercise of popular democracy.

The first step in the direction of finding a national, popular and democratic way out of the current crisis has to do with the restoration of the constitutional order; with the struggle against the usurpation of the republic by the group of politicians, businessmen, judges, and military leaders of which Felipe Calderón forms a part. In the current circumstances the recovery of national dignity and a solution to the poverty, unemployment and insecurity we face will come through the struggle to revoke the presidential mandate which the putschists conferred on Felipe Calderón.

The head of the Federal executive branch is de facto the principal point of reference of a corrupt and anti-national political regime; he is the instrument of the big businessmen and of the transnational corporations, used to carry out the complete depredation and sacking of our productive capacity, of our public and social property, and of our natural resources. Calderón is the most visible figure of the mafia that is attempting to consummate the establishment of a state with a criminal character which would be obsequious to the United States, and of a police-military state in the Columbian style. The struggle against the usurper [Felipe Calderón] and the dominant group, which includes the defense of our social rights and political and civil liberties, paves the way to remove the government of the neo-liberals that betrayed the people and the country.

Legal and human reasons for revoking the mandate of Felipe Calderón abound, as the condition of the country, or of what remains of it, could not be more grave. In less than three years the number of Mexicans in poverty has grown by 10 million; today more than 70 million of our inhabitants live in poverty; 24 or 25 million of that total live in extreme poverty and suffer the most degrading and inhuman misery. According to the official counts, the “president of employment” has been responsible for the layoff of more than a million and a half workers.

Calderón, who supposedly heads the war against insecurity and crime, has converted Mexico into the most insecure and violent country in the world during times of peace. The result of his war against drug dealers, or against one of their gangs, has been more than 15,000 murders and more than 7,000 disappeared. Nevertheless, neither the violence nor the kidnappings show any signs of diminishing much less of ending. Meanwhile between 25 and 40 billion dollars are laundered in the banks and businesses of respectable private companies, with the blessings of the governments of Calderón and Obama. At the same time, impunity reigns, and those responsible for the industrial crime of the Pasta de Conchos [mine accident of February 19, 2006], as well as Ulises Ruiz [governor of Oaxaca during the violent repression of a teachers strike in Oaxaca in 2006], Mario Marín [governor of Puebla accused by the press of misuse of his office in February 2006], Javier Lozano [the current Secretary of Labor], and the real culprits in the case of the ABC Daycare Center [fire of June 5, 2009] remain free, without mentioning the deaths in Juárez or the violations of human rights in San Salvador Atenco [events of May 3, 2006] where police violently abused over 200 people], Acteal [Chiapas massacre of 45 people on December 22, 1997] and many other places. Meanwhile the Supreme Court justices continue earning more than 340,000 pesos a month [about US$30,000 a month], while at the same time Ignacio del Valle [a leader of the social movement in Atenco sentenced to 67 years and currently held in prison] and his companions—among them many other social activists and innocent people—remain held incognito in illegal prisons of maximum or low security.

The de facto president [Felipe Calderón] has dispatched the armed forces throughout the national territory on missions of public security in violation of 129 of the Political Constitution of the United States of Mexico, and, consequently, has degraded the military service, transforming the soldiers into an army of occupation and counter-insurgency at the service of the oligarchs. In his role as commander-in-chief he has subordinated the armed forces to the military and political strategies of the government of the United States through the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership and the Merida Initiative, among other agreements and actions decided upon behind the back of the Mexican people which gravely affect national sovereignty and which, in their essence, constitute acts of treason to the Nation.

Making decisions beyond his competency, he has brought the national economy to the point of collapse, to recession, to the contraction of the internal market, to the astronomical growth of illegal internal and external debt, to the destruction of the productive plant, to a greater technical and scientific dependence, to the devastation of the countryside and to the end of food self-sufficiency, provoking greater migration of workers and affecting the standard of living of the whole population. In addition, he has illegally turned over the country to mining, oil, agricultural, and hotel companies, encouraging environmental damage and criminal behaviors against entire peoples and communities, acts that are now irreparable in human, environmental and economic terms.

Violating Article 123 of the Constitution [which protects labor rights] and following the anti-labor policies of his predecessors, [Calderón’s government] has recently violated the autonomy of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), with the sole goal of moving one step further in carrying out the destruction of our energy sovereignty and the privatization of electrical power and of the services derived from fiber optic cable. He has thrown out on the street more than 44,000 workers because of their opposition to the government’s plans.

Given this dark development project, the central questions are: Are we the citizens who didn’t vote for Calderón, or those of us who abstained—or even those who voted for the National Action Party [PAN] and have subsequently regretted it—are we prepared to support another three years of poverty, authoritarianism, privatization and the selling out of the country? Will the Mexican nation survive as a sovereign entity in the face of the systematic privatizing assault of the unpatriotic leaders who govern for the exclusive benefit of capitalist corporations? Is it necessary to pay such a high price in human life environmental damage, suffering and fruitless efforts while putting up with a government which has now become intolerable to millions of Mexicans? Does any reasonable doubt exist about the reactionary and regressive character of the current governing group that could lead us to hope for a correction of course by the usurper [Calderón] and his people?

On the eve of the commemoration of the Bicentennial of Independence and the Centennial of the Mexican Revolution, and facing the extraordinary worsening of the national social crisis which presents us not only with repression but also with the worst economic catastrophe and socio-environmental damage in the history of the country, it is necessary to step up and to summon our courage as in the time of Hidalgo, Morelos, Juárez, Magón, Villa, Zapata and [Lázaro] Cárdenas, and to struggle over the future of the nation, and to fight for the revocation of the presidential mandate of the de facto president Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa.

To discuss the way and means of doing this, we are organizing a first meeting for December 5 (in a place still to be confirmed) to which all Mexicans who are ready to take on this battle are invited to attend as organizers. In particular, we call the Movement in Defense of the Social Economy, Petroleum and Sovereignty, the Movement for Food and Energy Sovereignty, the Rights of Workers and the Democratic Liberties, the National Assembly of Popular Resistance, the Other Campaign, and the National Unity Conference of the Lefts to participate in the discussions and agreements so that once and for all Calderón and his government will go.

Sincerely,
[The proclamation, circulated electronically as a petition, has been signed by scores of labor unions and social movements as well as by hundreds and perhaps thousands of Mexican citizens.]

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Left Parties Reorganize with Eye toward 2012 Elections

Mexico’s left parties have begun a process of reorganization and repositioning with an eye toward the 2012 elections. The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) has carried out what it called a “re-foundation of the party” after years of debilitating internecine conflict.

The PRD Refoundation Convention held during the first week of December showed the party’s various rival factions capable of pulling together sufficiently to pass new party statutes and to conclude with a show of unity. Still, many members were disturbed by the passage of new statutes which would permit the PRD to form alliances not only with other left parties, but also under certain conditions with the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and the nation’s former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Party leader Jesús Ortega said the party had no plan to act on that resolution at this time, but would concentrate on alliances with other left parties and social movements.

A few days after the PRD’s convention, its leaders joined those of the two other smaller left parties, the Workers Party (PT) and Convergence, to create a new political alliance called Dialogue for the Reconstruction of Mexico (Dia). (The new alliance replaces the Broad Popular Front or FAP). Amalia García, governor of Zacatecas, and Marcelo Ebrard, mayor of Mexico City, have been mentioned as possible presidential candidates, as has the PRD’s candidate in the last election, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
When asked by reporters if in a state like Oaxaca which has been dominated by Ulises Ruiz of the Institutional Revolutionary party, the Dia would join with the conservative PAN, spokesmen said that the Dia would concentrate on alliances on the left and with social movements.

One thing that remains unclear is the question of the relationship between the left parties and Andrés Manuel López Obrador who claims to have won the last election and who formed his shadow government which he calls the Legitimate Government of Mexico. In that election in 2006 López Obrador was the candidate of the PRD. Since then, however, Ortega, leader of the party’s right wing and an opponent of López Obrador, has taken charge of the party. In the 2008 congressional and gubernatorial elections, López Obrador worked with the PT and Convergence more than with his own former party. During the last three years he has built a formidable organization loyal to him and independent of the political parties.

The other major left force in the country, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), the group that led the 1994 Chiapas Uprising, continues to oppose all of the political parties as well as the electoral process. During the last election, the EZLN created the Other Campaign, a non-electoral, anti-capitalist propaganda campaign that found a small following among the country’s most radical sectors. Several other left parties without electoral ballot status also exist. Finally, there are also several small armed guerrilla organizations which call for the overthrow of the existing government and which from time to time engage in armed attacks on government facilities or private businesses.

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Mexican Economy on Threshold of Recovery?

Driven by the modest recuperation of the American economy, in particular the four months of growth in U.S. manufacturing, the Mexican economy is also on the threshold of a recovery say economists. JP Morgan Chase & Company expects Mexico to grow at a rate of 3.5 percent. Last year the Mexican economy shrank by approximately 7 percent, the largest economic decline of any state in the Americas, with unemployment reaching the historic high of an official 4.3 percent. Actual unemployment would have been higher if discouraged workers and underemployed were counted. Over 40 percent of all Mexicans live in poverty.

President Felipe Calderón, whose three-years as president have been an economic disaster in large measure because of the world economic crisis, rearranged his economic cabinet in the first week of December. Calderón moved Finance Secretary Agustín Carstens to the position of new head of the central bank, the Banco de México, and Ernesto Cordero, the Secretary of Social Development to Carstens’ former position at Finance. Before serving as head of Finance, Carstens had held positions at the Banco de Mexico before going to work for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Carstens has pursued conservative economic strategies aimed at fighting inflation rather than stimulating the economy.

In Mexico the Crisis Lingers

While Mexico may be moving toward economic recovery, the great recession of 2008 has not yet fully abated by any means. The list of economic problems facing the country during the last year is formidable:

·Economic growth fell by 7 percent last year.
·Revenues from manufacturing and oil both shrank.
·Official unemployment levels reached 4.3 percent, an historic high
·Remittances from workers in the U.S., one of Mexico’s four major sources of income, fell by 36 percent from $2.64 billion last October to $1.69 billion at the same time this year.
·JP Morgan forecasts that Mexico’s budget deficit will grow to 2.75 percent of gross domestic product in 2010, while it was 2.1 percent of GDP in 2009. This is the greatest deficit since 1989.
·Now, with an economic recovery, some analysts suggest that inflation will rise to over 5 percent.
·Standard and Poor's and some other financial research and analysis firms have already down-graded Mexico’s bonds and others may soon do so, meaning that Mexico will have to pay more to borrow money.

The one bright spot at the moment for the Mexican economy is the rising price of oil, with Mexico setting prices for the next year at $70 per barrel, with a hedge price of $57.

Long Term Structural Problems and Poverty

Mexico, however, faces structural economic problems that make long term economic prospects dim. First, since the economic integration that began in the 1970s with the growth of the maquiladora plants along the U.S.-Mexico border, but especially since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, Mexico has become too narrowly tied to the U.S. economy. Second, Mexico’s oil production, a major source of national wealth and government revenue, faces a long-term decline.

Third, out-migration to the United States has become increasingly difficult as the border has been tightened, the U.S. government has increased inspections on employers, and state and local government have passed anti-immigrant legislation. Moreover, many potential immigrants are simply staying home due to reports of increased difficulty in finding work in the U.S. Fourth, the rising tide of drug cartel violence and military human rights violations—shootings, torture, rapes, murders, beheadings, disappearances—will have an increasingly negative impact on tourism over time.

What all of this means for most Mexicans is poverty. A recent study by the National Council for the Evaluation of Development Policies (CONEVAL), an agency of the Mexican government’s Secretary of Social Development, found that only 18 percent of all Mexicans have incomes sufficient to provide for their basic economic needs. The study found that 37.5 percent of all Mexicans live on the edge of poverty with some social needs unmet, while 43.5 percent of all Mexicans simply live in poverty. Other studies suggest that about 20 to 25 percent live in extreme poverty, meaning they suffer hunger and significant health impacts.

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Carnegie Study Says NAFTA Failed Mexico

A new 22-page report—Rethinking Trade Policy for development: Lessons from Mexico Under NAFTA—written by Eduardo Zepeda, Timothy A. Waise, and Kevin P. Gallagher, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace argues that NAFTA failed Mexico.

As stated in the summary:

The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that Mexico’s reforms, backed by NAFTA, have largely been a disappointment for the country. Despite dramatic increases in trade and foreign investment, economic growth has been slow and job creation has been weak. Now, with its economy so closely tied to that of its northern neighbor, Mexico is suffering the most severe economic crisis in the region. (p. 1).

While recognizing some economic benefits from the agreement, the study suggests that NAFTA has by and large been a failure in producing growth and economic betterment for the population as a whole. On the question of growth the document states:

Mexico’s economy grew at an annual per capita rate of only 1.6 percent between 1992 and 2007. This is low by Mexico’s own standards—from 1960 to 1979, real per capita growth averaged 3.5 percent—and low by developing country standards as well. Mexico has had one of the lowest growth rates in Latin America. Countries with less orthodox trade and development policies—India, Brazil, and China—have achieved growth rates in the same period that were much higher than Mexico’s. Contrary to Mexico’s emphasis on deficit-reduction, these more dynamic countries adopted pro-growth policies with high levels of public investment to maximize the growth-stimulus of expanding trade. (p. 5).

Consequently, says the document, the NAFTA model has failed to produce jobs:

With slow growth and overall investment weak, it should come as no surprise that employment growth has been poor. Still, it is striking that NAFTA could bring Mexico such large increases in trade and foreign investment but generate so few jobs. Overall, limited employment gains in manufacturing and services have been offset by large employment losses in agriculture. With roughly one million Mexicans entering the labor force each year, the NAFTA model has failed to deliver what Mexico needs the most.

Nor has it produced improvements in wages:

The record on wages is disappointing, if unsurprising. Real wages in manufacturing fell after the 1995 peso crisis and recovered to their pre- NAFTA levels after 2001. But they are up only slightly (8 percent) in the maquiladora sector, while wages in non-maquiladora manufacturing remain at pre-NAFTA levels. This is in sharp contrast to the impressive growth of productivity in the sector. Those gains have not been shared with workers. (p. 13)

It is not surprising then that:

Mexico remains one of the hemisphere’s highly unequal countries. By all accounts, NAFTA contributed to growing geographical inequality between Mexico’s southern and northern states. There was growth in states along the U.S. border and those with transportation infrastructure and/or industrial trade with the United States, as well as tourist areas. States in southern Mexico languished behind. (p. 15).

The conclusions of the paper call for changes in future trade policies and agreements, including “benchmark standards for the labor environment.” The report observes:

NAFTA’s side agreements have proven woefully inadequate. The incorporation of language on labor and the environment in recent U.S. agreements will do little to increase labor rights and environmental standards and enforcement, at least not in a way that addresses the problems experienced by Mexico. North America needs to create dignified labor conditions and a sustainable environment across borders. That will take more substantive reform. (p. 18).

There is much other information in this report that will be of interest to all concerned with Mexico, trade, and the economy.

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Amnesty Says Mexico Must Stop Military Murder, Torture

Information from Amnesty International press release

The global human rights organization Amnesty International released a new report on December 8 declaring that Mexico has failed to fully investigate and take action on military abuses of human rights during the drug wars of the last three years.

“There is a disturbing pattern of crimes committed by the military in their security operations, abuse that is being denied and ignored by both the civilian and the military authorities in Mexico,” said Kerrie Howard, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Americas programme.

In its report, Mexico: Human rights violations by the military, Amnesty International accuses the authorities of failing to fully probe allegations of abuses committed by the military, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial and unlawful killings, torture, ill treatment and arbitrary detentions.

By the end of June 2009, almost 2,000 complaints of abuse by the military had been received by the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico since the start of 2008. Only 367 were received in 2007 and 182 in 2006.

Amnesty International believes that this information does not fully reflect the extent of abuses being carried out, but that it is indicative of a growing trend of abuses.

A human rights organization in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, told Amnesty International it had received 70 complaints involving arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment by the military between January 2008 and September 2009. But only 21 individuals lodged legal complaints. The rest feared that threats against them would transform into attacks.

“The cases that we have been able to investigate are truly shocking. But what is more shocking is that we know that this is only the tip of the iceberg. We are able to go into specific detail on a number of cases whilst the government continues to deny that there are cases of human rights abuses that need to be investigated,” said Kerrie Howard.

Amnesty International’s report goes into detail on five cases of serious human rights violations committed by the military against 35 individuals between October 2008 and August 2009 in the states of Chihuahua,Tamaulipas and Baja California.

On 21 October 2008, witnesses saw 31 year-old Saúl Becerra Reyes and five other men arrested by soldiers in a car-wash in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state.

Five days later, the five men arrested with Becerra were transferred from a military base to the Federal Attorney General’s Office and charged with drug and firearm offences. Becerra’s detention was never acknowledged and he was never seen alive again.

Several official complaints were made about Becerra’s disappearance but none led to an effective investigation by the authorities. Despite a petition from a federal judge, civilian and military authorities repeatedly denied knowledge of Becerra’s whereabouts.

Becerra’s body was found in March 2009. His death certificate said he died one day after his detention of a cerebral hemorrhage from head trauma. The authorities carried out no further autopsy.

The federal judge closed the case and passed it to the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office to be investigated as an ordinary murder with no reference to evidence of military involvement.

“Mexico is facing a major public security crisis and the government has a clear responsibility to combat organized crime and drug cartels by all legal means,” said Kerrie Howard.

“This is a difficult and dangerous job, but the severity of a crisis should not be used as a pretext for turning a blind eye when abuses are committed.”

Amnesty International also complained that the few cases of military abuse that are taken forward are dealt with in virtually closed military courts where victims and their relatives have no access to information or status on which they can challenge judicial or court proceedings.

The lack of independence and impartiality of military prosecutors and courts has repeatedly resulted in the denial of justice to victims and impunity for perpetrators.

“The abuses we have seen contribute to the deterioration of the security situation in Mexico,” said Kerrie Howard.

“By failing to take action to prevent and punish serious human rights violations the Mexican government could be seen to be complicit in these crimes.”

Amnesty International urged the Mexican authorities to recognize the seriousness and scale of the reports of human rights abuses committed by members of the military as well as the level of complicity of civilian authorities in covering up these abuses and to make the issue a government priority.

The government must take immediate steps to ensure prompt and impartial investigations by the civilian authorities so those responsible are brought before the civilian courts and victims receive reparations.

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Inter-American Court Finds Mexico Violated Rights

The Inter-American Court found in December that Mexico had violated the rights of three women murdered in Ciudad Juárez. The bodies of Claudia González, Esmeralda Herrera and Berenice Ramos had been found in a cotton field in that city in November 2001, together with the bodies of five other women who have not been identified. Those eight are among at least 350 women murdered in Ciudad Juárez in recent years.

When the Mexican government failed to take action to solve the crime and punish the murderers, the women’s families took the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In 2007 the Commission made a series of recommendations to Mexico to deal with the crimes. When Mexico failed to fulfill on those recommendations, the Commission then took Mexico to Court, resulting in the decision in these cases condemning Mexico.

The Court has ordered Mexico to:

· Investigate, try and punish those responsible for the murders.
· Mexico must investigate the gender issues in these murders.
· Carry out an investigation on the sexual violence in Chihuahua.
· Indemnify those who have been harmed.
· Investigate harassment of family members of the victims.
· Standardize Mexican laws and investigative methods.
· Publish the Court’s condemnation of Mexico in the Official Daily of the Federation and in national and state newspapers.
· Erect a monument to the memory of the victims.

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Mexicans Protest Assassination of Indigenous Environmentalist

At the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City during early December, environmental activists from Chiapas protested the killing of indigenous environmental activist Mariano Abarca Roblero. Claudia Campero and others called for an end to violence against environmentalists.

Protests and international indignation led the Mexican government to shut down the Canadian owned Blackfire Exploration Ltd. Barite mine in Chiapas, declaring that it was in violation of environmental standards.

Abarco Roblero, who had been protesting the mine’s pollution of the local water supply, organized a movement last June to block access to the mine. Shortly before he was killed, he reportedly had notified authorities that one of the mine’s employees had threatened him.

He was shot and killed on November 27 while standing in front of his home in the town of Chicomuselo, Chiapas near the Guatelaman border. The gunman fled on a motor cycle driven by a second man.

Police arrested three men, one of whom was a contractor, one a former mine employee, and the third a mine supervisor. The company denied any knowledge of or involvement in the killing and declared that its mines met international environmental standards.

Governor General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean, the personal representative of the Canadian President, flew to San Cristobal de las Casas where she told the press, “We find it deporable, inexcusable...We will be following this situation closely with the firm hope and conviction that justice will be served.”

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Mexican Authorities Free 119 Slave Laborers in Mexico City

Mexican authorities freed 119 slave laborers from two sites in Mexico City. In the larger of two government operations, 107 slave laborers were liberated from Hospital Santo Tomás of Those Chosen by God, supposedly a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility.
Mexico City Attorney General Miguel Angel Mancera called their treatment “cruel and inhuman.” Police arrested over 20 suspects, including the facility’s administrator and the person accused of being the chief kidnapper.

The laborers aged 14 to 70 years old, many of whom were non-Spanish speaking
indigenous people, had been kidnapped from various locations and brought to the facility to work from 8:00 a.m. to midnight, often without bathroom breaks, causing them to soil themselves. The site had bars on the windows and a fence around the buildings.

When they were freed, the victims who had been living in filthy and unsanitary conditions were suffering from dehydration and malnutrition. Some of the victims had been physically and sexually abused.

Studies suggest that thousands, perhaps as many as 10,000 people are kidnapped each year in Mexico. While some are held for ransom, others are pressed into sexual slavery or slave labor. Indigenous people and the poor are among those most likely to be enslaved.

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Miners Vow to Continue Strikes

Leaders of the Mexican Miners and Metal Workers Union (SNTMMRM) say that their union will not end its three strikes—now more than 28 months old—at the country’s largest copper mine in Cananea, Sonora; a silver mine in Taxco, Guerrero, and a zinc mine in Sombrerete, Zacatecas. Miners’ strikes this year have cost the mining industry US$3.2 billion.

In addition to those three long strikes, the union also led a 45-day strike at Met-Mex, owned by Peñoles, metal refinery in early 2009 and another strike for 30-days at the AreclorMittal steel mill.

The union claims that through its strikes and contract negotiations it has concluded 70 collective bargaining agreements bringing wage gains much higher than those of other unions in a variety of other industries.

The Mexican government and Grupo Mexico, the mining company, have been for almost three years involved in a campaign to jail the union’s leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, who remains in exile in Vancouver, British Columbia, and to destroy the militant union.

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Thirtieth Anniversary of Opposition Caucus in Teachers Union

The National Coordinating Committee, la CNTE, an opposition caucus within the 1.4 million member Mexican Teachers Union (el SNTE), celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this month. Established on December 17 and 18 of 1979, the caucus has been perhaps the most active and militant labor movement in Mexico since its founding.

Year after year la CNTE has mobilized its members, first to demand the right to hold state conventions to democratically elect its members, then to win higher salaries, and throughout its history, in support of other workers organizations. La CNTE has also fought over social and political issues, becoming a major force in resisting the economic policies of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and later of the National Action Party (PRD).

1979 – the Founding of the Movement

During the 1970s the Mexican Teachers Union (el SNTE), which represents teachers and other workers employed by the Secretary of Public Education (SEP), was dominated by Carlos Jongitud Barrios, a virtual dictator over the union’s members. A loyal ally of the PRI, Jongitud Barrios headed up the Revolutionary Vanguard, the leadership caucus that controlled the union, and which, working with the SEP, controlled hiring and firing, promotions and salaries, benefits and working conditions. Those who opposed the Revolutionary Vanguard might find themselves fired, beaten or even murdered.

Then, in the late 1970s, a group of leftist union activists, many of them members of small revolutionary parties, came together to create the National Coordinating Committee (la CNTE). Based among the bilingual school teachers of Chiapas and Oaxaca (speakers of Spanish and various indigenous languages), many of them women, and among the teachers of Mexico City, the caucus began with the demand to hold state teachers’ conventions to elect their own leaders.

The struggle with the Revolutionary Vanguard led the teachers in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca to mobilize tens of thousands of their members every year for strikes and protests first at their respective state capitals and then in Mexico City in front of the union headquarters and the offices of the SEP. Jongitud Barrios and the Revolutionary Vanguard responded by colluding with the SEP to fire dissident teachers, to beat them or even to kill opposition leaders and activists. Yet, year after year the teachers struck, marched, demonstrated and sat-in at first in the state capitals and then in Mexico City. Gradually Oaxaca and Chiapas wrested control of the state teachers unions from Jongitud.

1989 a Turning Point in the Movement

After ten years of struggle for union democracy and higher pay, the movement reached a turning point in 1989 when Mexico City local unions also rebelled against Jongitud and the Revolutionary Vanguard. The combined pressure from both the Oaxaca and Chiapas unions, the unions in Mexico City and others unions around the country, led to the ousting of Jongitud and opened the way for change.

At that moment, however, Carlos Salinas of the PRI, the newly elected president of Mexico intervened and convinced and cajoled the opposition union activists into accepting Elba Esther Gordillo as head of the union. Gordillo, who already spent 18 years in the PRI, became leader of the Teachers Union at first in an alliance with the reformers. Gradually, however, she built a machine nearly as powerful as Jongitud’s and became the opposition’s nemesis. The reformers, still strongest in Chiapas, Oaxaca and Mexico City, once again found themselves in the opposition.

1999 – a New Party in Power

In 1999 Vicente Fox of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) ran for president and won, ending the more than 70 year domination of the PRI. Many Mexicans, including many teachers, hoped that his election might usher in a more democratic era, just as they hoped it would end the government’s support for the bureaucrats who dominated most of Mexico’s labor unions. That hope, however, proved to be a delusion. Fox and the PAN soon reached a modus vivendi with the labor establishment.

Elba Esther Gordillo, however, backed the most rightwing group in the PRI, headed by Roberto Madrazo, and played a key role in his election to the head of the party in 2000. She became head of the PRI’s parliamentary bloc and later general secretary of the party. When she saw that the PRI’s candidate, her ally Madrazo, would fail, she changed sides. In 2006 she formed her own New Alliance Party (PANAL), tacitly supporting the PAN, leading to her expulsion from the PRI in the summer of 2006.

Today 2009

In the hotly contested and controversial 2006 election—critics allege it was stolen—Felipe Calderón of the PAN defeated Roberto Madrazo of the PRI and Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, to win the Mexican presidential race. To repay her help in winning his victory, Calderón soon entered into an agreement with Gordillo to create the Alliance for Quality Education (ACE). Many teachers saw this program as both an attempt to promote the privatization of education and to break the power of the union.

Once again la CNTE went into motion, organizing demonstrations throughout the country against the Calderón-Gordillo alliance and the ACE program. The old bulwarks of la CNTE in Chiapas, Oaxaca and Mexico City were now joined by the new democratic teachers’ movement of Michoacán, and occasionally by groups in other states.

More Than Just a Teachers Union Movement

Throughout its history la CNTE has been more than simply a caucus in the Mexican Teachers Union. La CNTE and its members supported other unions in their struggles and joined national coalitions such as the National Front Against Privatization of the energy and petroleum industries. The teachers of the Oaxaca local union, the bulwark of la CNTE, were, in alliance with the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) at the center of the struggle against governor Ulises Ruiz in 2006. Several teachers and allies were murdered by police or death squads in that upheaval.

While the caucus did not run candidates or endorse parties, many of its members participated in various political movements that they saw as furthering democracy in the country and changing economic policies. Many rallied in the late 1980s to the Democratic Current, an opposition group in the PRI led by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, and then to the Cárdenas campaign for president in 1987. Other teachers became supporters in one fashion or another of the Zapatista Front for National Liberation (FZLN). And many teachers supported the campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador for President in 2006, and then after the election authorities declared that he had lost, rejected that decision and backed his Legitimate Government. At the same time, leaders of la CNTE were often members of smaller revolutionary socialist organizations. The government also accused la CNTE of being involved with the armed guerrilla movements such as the Peoples Revolutionary Army (ERP), though la CNTE has denied any such connection.

For the last thirty years, it would not be going too far to say that la CNTE has been the militant minority of Mexico’s largest union and of the entire labor movement.

Problems and Prospects

While fighting to improve the lives of teachers, to democratize the teachers’ union, and to bring a leftist alternative to Mexican politics, la CNTE has also had its problems and defects.

First, the central concerns of the caucus have always been teachers’ concerns such as higher pay. La CNTE has failed to develop an alternative vision of what education in Mexico should look like. Only recently have the Michoacán teachers have put forward an alternative pedagogy, curriculum and texts, but other la CNTE chapters have yet to follow.

Second, and not unrelated to the first problem, the union’s weeks’ and sometimes months’ long strikes have disappointed and sometimes angered the parents of Chiapas and Oaxaca. Parents have often felt that the teachers put their needs ahead of them and their children.

Third, corruption—nepotism, favoritism, and political patronage—are profound problems within the Secretary of Education and the Mexican Teachers Union. Many teachers believe it is their right or their privilege to pass on jobs, promotions and transfers to members of their families, their friends or their political caucus, and la CNTE members have sometimes shared in these practices. More worrisome, la CNTE organizations have sometimes defended these practices. Many leaders of la CNTE are aware that they must confront these problems and are seeking solutions.

The Future of la CNTE

The current general secretary of la CNTE, Sergio Espinal, was born in Maravatio, Michoacán, graduated from a rural Teachers collage in Tiripeio, and taught for more than twenty years. In 2002 he became the general secretary of Local 17 in Michoacán, a position he held until November 2005. While nationally la CNTE members pay 10 pesos (about one dollar) per month to the union caucus, in addition to their union dues, the Michoacán leadership has asked its members to contribute 20 in order to create a war chest to defeat Gordillo.

Espinal says that la CNTE should give up its role as the “eternal opposition,” create a national movement, and organize to rid the union of Gordillo. At the same time, he recognizes the importance of fighting the Calderón government and neoliberal policies. The government’s recent attacks on the Mexican Miners and Metal Workers Union and on the Mexican Electrical Workers Union suggest that winning a victory in the teachers union, which is so central to the nation’s political system, will be a very great challenge.

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Resources

Anna Vigna, “Hell is the Tijuana Assembly Line,” Counterpunch Magazine on line .

Back to December , 2009 Table of Contents

Back to Table of Contents of Mexican Labor News & Analysis articles.

Archived MLNA issues.